Already down one player for the next month, Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso received much better news about the second injury suffered against New Mexico.

Junior outfielder Marcus Doi was in a walking boot, but was on the plane to California on Wednesday for Hawaii’s three-game series against San Francisco starting Friday.

Doi, who has missed 55 games over his first two seasons because of various injuries, severely sprained his ankle sliding into second base breaking up a double play on Monday.

He’s considered “very questionable” for the USF series, but simply being on the team bus Wednesday was a good sign considering he thought he heard a ‘pop’ in his ankle when he hit the bag.

An X-ray revealed no fracture.

“We’re taking him because it might get to a point where he can play,” Trapasso said. “It really is going to be determined by how he feels. It will be a tolerance thing.”

Hawaii (2-4) is already without sophomore catcher Chayce Ka‘aua, who broke his finger sliding into the same bag on Friday.

Freshman Kekai Rios and senior Alan Baldwin took turns catching the rest of the New Mexico series.

Trapasso said he’s comfortable starting Rios all three games against the Dons (0-6), but hadn’t made up his mind whether he’d rest him and use Baldwin for a game.

A fifth-year senior out of Kailua High, Baldwin has started five games in right field and one at catcher. He’s off to a solid start at the plate, hitting .368 (7-for-19) with a double and two runs scored, and was moved up to the cleanup spot and had two hits in Monday’s 7-1 loss.

Ka‘aua and Rios handled the majority of the catching duties in the fall and spring, but Baldwin, who was recruited to UH as a catcher, said he got some work in as well.

“It’s like riding a bike,” Baldwin said Wednesday. “I had a feeling when Chayce went down that my number might get called and my job is to be ready.”

Playing Baldwin at catcher would leave UH with four healthy outfielders with Doi out. Freshman Kobi Candaroma, who started in right when Baldwin caught Game 3 against the Lobos, and junior utility Casey Ryan are the two options with Matt LoCoco and Alex Fitchett handling the other two outfield spots.

Hawaii will play only three games against USF. Senior left-hander Alex Hatch will start the third game with right-hander Josh Pigg moving to the bullpen for the weekend.

The Rainbows gave up 34 runs and walked a staggering 38 batters against the Lobos in what Trapasso called, “probably the worst-pitched series” he’s had at UH.

Senior Kyle Von Ruden was the only starter to pitch into the sixth inning. The Rainbows did get good outings in relief from Matt Valencia, Kyle Mitchell, Ryan and Cody Culp, who have combined to allow one earned run in 12 innings.

Junior Isaac Friesen and senior Lawrence Chew were both scored on at the end of their outings, but also pitched out of tricky situations against the Lobos without giving up a run.

“Of course we’re disappointed with the numbers, but I’m looking at it from a different point of view and that’s why I finished that series saying nothing changed my mind about us being a good club,” Trapasso said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time building up pitch counts because we had a couple of our starters who haven’t been able to get their pitch counts up because of injuries and you saw what happened.

“Your starters have to give you six innings at any level against any team to give you a chance to win.”

There could be some lineup changes for Friday’s game. Hawaii is hitting .244 as a team and will be without Ka’aua and Doi, who are two of the four leading hitters.

Matt LoCoco has led off each of the first six games and has two triples and a home run, but is hitting just .174.

Third baseman Johnny Weeks (.150) and second baseman Josh Rojas (.100) also have struggled to start the season and Fitchett, who doubled and drew three walks in his UH debut, went 0-for-10 with six strikeouts in the final three games against UNM.

“As bad as the pitching I was, I was honestly more upset with our offense,” Trapasso said. “You’ve got to score more than one run in the fourth game of a series.”

The three games against the Dons will be played at Saint Mary’s due to USF’s home field not being ready yet.

Hawaii went 8-15 in road and neutral site games last season and is 19-43 away from home since joining the Big West.